Documentary family photographer Emily Renier explains how she uses black & white to commemorate everyday life
Formerly a deputy head teacher at a primary school, Emily Renier made the transition to become a professional photographer later in life.
“As so many people do – it’s a real cliché – in your mid-30s you start to have a midlife crisis,” she recounts. “I’d worked myself into the ground and realised it was a toxic environment for me. I had a burnout and decided to leave the industry altogether.”
Realising that much of her life had become an exercise in keeping up appearances, Emily sought a radical career change – and in doing so, looked to change people’s perceptions of ordinary life.
“When I took up photography, I decided I wanted to do something to help other people who might be going through something similar to me – to make them realise that striving for an appearance that isn’t authentic is harmful to you as a person,” she explains.
“If my images can celebrate life as it is – especially ordinary, day-to-day life – and make even the ugly stuff look beautiful, then maybe we can all strive to stop being something we’re not and feel more in harmony with who we really are.”
Finding beauty in the everyday
Turning seemingly mundane moments into beautiful photographs is all about light and storytelling, Emily suggests.
“As a photographer, you get obsessed with light,” she explains. “I almost see life in black & white now, and I see light as leaving an imprint on everything.
“If I walk into a room and see light from a window hitting an object, I find it incredibly beautiful – and intensely moving. There’s a certain element of wanting to print light – which is exactly what photography is – and show how any mundane element of life can be made beautiful by the art of photography.”
Emily uses the Film Simulation function on her X Series cameras to preview all her photos in black & white – despite recording in RAW and making final decisions on the colours of her photos in post-processing.
“I photograph using ACROS, because I see light better that way. I feel people better that way as well. I do deliver in colour, but if I could choose to only deliver monochrome images, I would,” she asserts. “Families like a bit of both though, so that’s more of a commercial decision.”
The limitations imposed by black & white photography enforce a more deliberate approach to visual storytelling, Emily claims. “I have a big preference for mono. Working in black & white, composition becomes a lot harder, because you need to have really good separation.
“You can’t depend on colours to make sense of the picture, so you have to make sure there’s a strong narrative in the photo to give it enough structure.
“I do a bit of street photography as well, and I find black & white street photography hard for that reason. It’s difficult to tell a story in monochrome, and therefore it challenges you to focus on the narrative of the picture.”
A documentary approach
A unique photographic service offered by Emily is to intermittently work with families over a period of years, creating a far-reaching gallery documenting their daily lives.
“We’re really good at highlighting the great moments in our life – like a wedding or the birth of a child – not realising that what is most beautiful is the hard work we put in every day,” she posits.
“There’s a writer called Alain de Botton who says that love isn’t an emotion – it’s a skill. I think that when you work hard at life every day, you become really skilful at loving it – warts and all. And so, when you’re making a picture of those warts, you’re showing off your skill at being able to appreciate life in all its glory.”
Inevitably, this kind of session has a very different feel to photographing people at a landmark event like a wedding. A large aspect of that difference is due to the sense of familiarity that can only be attained over a long period.
“There’s a family I’ve worked with over the course of five years, so the boys are now completely used to me being around with my camera, because they’ve worked with me so often,” Emily describes.
“In the first session, there’s always a lot of playing up to the camera. The adults too – they don’t have an established relationship with the camera, so they’re not sure what they’re supposed to do.
“As they learn about me, and they see that actually all I’m doing is coming round for a coffee and a chat – but I happen to have my camera along with me – the focus becomes less on performing and more on living.
“The notion that your camera is going to be completely invisible and people will forget you’re there – that’s not possible. As photographers, we’re always going to bruise the scene in one way or another.”
However, on rare occasions – and almost exclusively with clients Emily has built a strong personal connection with – the camera can become completely invisible to those being photographed. “Sometimes, when I work with a family for a long time, they completely buy into what I’m doing,” she explains.
“It’s a really low percentage of the families I work with who absolutely get what I’m trying to do – lots will perform a bit more, as they want lifestyle photos where their family looks perfect. This is why photographers struggle to make a living just on documentary family photography.”
Fujifilm kit for documentary photography
Relying totally on natural light, Emily’s photography set-up consists of three X Series cameras, equipped with wide-aperture prime lenses.
“I use two FUJFILM X-H2Ss, one with the FUJINON XF18mmF1.4 R LM WR and the other with the FUJINON XF56mmF1.2 R,” she lists. “My third camera is the FUJIFILM X-T5, which I use with either the FUJINON XF23mmF1.4 R LM WR or the XF33mmF1.4 R LM WR.
“There’s no doubt that the X-T5 is my favourite camera, but I can’t do a job without the X-H2S. When you work with children, they only stay in the decisive moment for half a second.”
Designed for uncompromising speed, the FUJIFILM X-H2S’s stacked X-Trans CMOS 5 HS sensor and X-Processor 5 enable high-speed burst photography at up to 40 frames per second, while the in-body image stabilisation (IBIS) system offers up to 7.0 stops of image stabilisation.
“Because I work in people’s homes – often on dark, rainy November afternoons when there’s no light – thanks to IBIS, I can go down a few stops and let in as much light as possible, but then I’ve still got enough in the camera to get fast photos of toddlers that run at 500 miles per hour,” Emily explains.
“People always ask me why I use three cameras when most documentary people only have two. It’s just my set-up – and it works really well for me. In the past, I’ve tried to scale back down to two, but I always find I’m missing a specific lens.”
While a zoom lens would offer more versatility, Emily’s preference is for the wider apertures of her primes. “I’ve never really used zoom lenses. I work at times when there’s a minimal amount of light, and a zoom lens takes out the light that I really need. Primes give you this beautiful outcome as well; for me, there’s no comparison.”
The power of empathy
While excellent photographic technique is vital for Emily’s work, she believes that the majority of her specialism lies in her ability to communicate with and understand her clients.
“You could argue that interpersonal skills are 90% of the work, while 10% is the skill of photography,” she claims. “Fujifilm has made such amazing cameras that they can make pretty much any picture you want. They can think by themselves and produce these absolutely incredible images.
“You could leave it in Auto mode and it would do all the hard work for you. I don’t work like that – I’m obsessed with it being fully manual – but I’m saying that you don’t have to worry about the camera so much.
“90% is left to you working hard at understanding human psychology and behaviour,” Emily asserts.
“I’m very interested in human psychology. And because I worked in education for 12 years, I’m used to working with people from all walks of life, who have different needs. You get a feel for how people are feeling in the moment: what’s bothering them, what’s making them happy.
“It gives you a feeling for how much distance you need to give people and when to stop taking photos. I love the purity of a moment, but I also prioritise people’s need for space over my photographs. It has to be about respecting people’s boundaries, and you can only really do that if you have a deep empathy for them.”
